Table 1.
Summary of descriptive case studies for 10 places
| Case study |
  Current consumption/dependence on wild meat |
Resilience and adaptability |
Overall outlook | Key refs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Eco-logical |
 Socio-economic |
||||
| Madagascar | Ubiquitous and very high | Very Low | Very Low | Food system would struggle to adapt; protein intake may fall leading to malnutrition. Prohibitions may be socially illegitimate and difficult to enforce. | 18,20 |
| East Region, Cameroon | Ubiquitous and high | Low | Low | Rural food system would struggle to adapt. Prohibitions may be socially illegitimate and difficult to enforce. | 16,21 |
| Malawi | Moderate, dependence varies in urban versus rural | Low | Low | Rural food system would struggle to adapt, additional prohibitions may be socially illegitimate, with persistence of informal markets. Urban Malawians consuming wild meat (mice and birds) as delicacies may adapt. | 17,22 |
| Rural Gabon | Ubiquitous and high | Low | Very Low | Rural food system would struggle to adapt. Urbanisation reduces hunting, though demand may remain due to increased wealth and preferences. Prohibitions may be socially illegitimate and difficult to enforce, even with alternatives. | 23, 24, 25 |
| Brazilian Amazon | Ubiquitous and high | High | Very Low | Rural and indigenous food system would struggle to adapt. Reliance on fishing may increase, agricultural expansion may occur to supply urban consumers. High social costs for rural and indigenous peoples, prohibitions difficult to enforce. | 13,26 |
| Brazilian Atlantic Forest | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Food system could potentially adapt; though agricultural expansion should focus on intensification of production and recovery of degraded areas to avoid further deforestation and threats to biodiversity. Social costs would be high for rural poor and indigenous populations. Current prohibitions are already difficult to enforce. | 27, 28, 29 |
| Tropical SW Ghana | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Food system could potentially adapt overall; however severe impacts would be felt by some. Economic shocks may be the biggest risk, for female traders/wholesalers. | 24,30,31 |
| USA | Low overall, relatively high in some areas | High | High | Food system can adapt overall; though impacts would be felt by some rural and relatively food-insecure groups. Agricultural expansion may occur, the hunting industry – and revenues generated for conservation – would suffer large economic losses. Social cost for recreational hunters would be high. | 32 |
| China | Moderate overall, high in some areas | Moderate | High | Food system can adapt overall, though increases in agricultural production or imports would be needed, with risks for biodiversity and EIDs. Significant economic shocks for rural wildlife farmers. | 33, 34, 35 |
| Nigeria | High in rural areas | High | Moderate | Food system could potentially adapt through expansion of animal agriculture and provision of alternatives to rural communities, though with concomitant risks for biodiversity and EIDs. Taste preferences for wild meat over domestic meat would remain challenging, though public health messaging may overcome this. | 36, 37, 38 |
Shading corresponds to type of negative consequences that are more likely, as per the spectrum in the conceptual model (see Methods): food insecurity = yellow, land-use change and biodiversity loss = blue. The categoric measures of ecological and socio-economic resilience and adaptability are semiquantitative, based on expert judgement by the authors. See Table S3 for details.